Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

aka: PQ, PQ1, Police Quest 1
Moby ID: 146
Amiga Specs

Description official description

Sonny Bonds is a small town policeman who must fight against the rising tide of drugs in his city. The game is based on real police procedure and adheres carefully to following the rules of police work. Beginning as a patrol officer and working into detectives, Sonny will chase down the infamous Death Angel and put an end to his criminal underworld.

A typical Sierra parser game built with the popular AGI engine, Police Quest differs from the others release by the company in the realism of the setting and travelling, that is done by car, controlled by the player using a overhead view (instead of the cabbie of Leisure Suit Larry or walking around in Space Quest). Some sections of the game require the player to be efficient driving the car (as there are a fair number of chases, and traffic rules also apply to the player).

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Credits (Amiga version)

11 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 75% (based on 22 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 109 ratings with 12 reviews)

Absolute classic

The Good
Police Quest 1 was one of the most impactful games of my childhood! Looking back, playing the role of an authority figure was a very cool and novel thing as a child, and probably one of factors that made it so much fun to play.

The game was ahead of its time, giving the player a bit of the "Grand Theft Auto" sense of freedom and control. Though there were very few locations you could drive to and actually leave your vehicle, driving the streets of Lytton is basically a mini-game unto itself. The game is written that as long as you're in your patrol car at the appropriate time, it doesn't matter where you are - the same red-light runner, drunk driver, etc, comes to you and violates the law in front of you... so its not random chance.

Being text-based, you also have the freedom to type whatever you want... sometimes you'll be surprised at what the game understands and will accept as answers! (Notably, the things you can get away with saying to the red-light runner!!). If what you type is not understood, the game will simply reply with a message of "What is a ______?" and you know you have to re-phrase yourself.

The Bad
Like many other games, once you go through the game and accomplish everything, it's quite difficult to go back and do it again with the same sense of naivete and excitement... it becomes quite formulaic - Do this, then this, then go here, then say this, etc, etc. Re-playability is more for nostalgia purposes, or to show a friend... the theme just doesn't suit multiple plays, as the novelty is in the story and figuring things out.

Driving is fun, but hard! Especially on faster machines, it can be extremely challenging to park your vehicle safely.

Not knowing what to do next can lead to some dull moments. You're driving around aimlessly when the game wants you to go back to the Police Department... in the meantime you're not alerted to this, and you're getting bored. Pre-internet, this was extremely frustrating!

The poker games are monotonous and go on far too long. There's simply no reason for this, the designers could've done better at making this a smaller feature of the game.

The game also makes you follow regulations a bit too much, as in, you have to walk around your vehicle before you leave the yard EVERY TIME to inspect it, or game over, you lose! Save frequently in multiple save files, because you'll be dying regularly and needing to restore your game often! It's also hard to follow police regulations exactly as the game wants you to, as the modern player is extremely unlikely to have the game manual handy! Personally I was helped a lot because my Dad is a police officer, and as a kid I would go ask him "What would you do in this situation?"!

The Bottom Line
It's a challenge, especially if you can get through it the first time without outside help. I've enjoyed introducing family and friends to this game through the years, and typically they really get into it and want to figure out what to do next. It's quite addictive and you're never fully satisfied until you beat it!

DOS · by Condemned (71) · 2009

One of the best text adventures

The Good
Regardless of the game, I like the idea of a text adventure about police work. So you're "fighting evil" like in any other game, but in a more realistic, procedural way. Doing all the preparations, considering safety etc. But I think the game might have been boring if Sonny Bonds hadn't been a bit like Roger Wilco. Sonny is supposed to be a 15 year veteran, but because the average player isn't, Sonny is treated more like a rookie, mocked and told off for making mistakes. Also, there's some light mockery of the police in general, good for those who have run-ins with the cops and I guess, acknowledging that sometimes the law sucks and deserves a bit of mockery. Undoubtedly, any mockery is balanced with deadly seriousness. The encounter with gunman "Marvin Hoffman" was probably the height of the tension in the game, you had to follow step-by-step procedure or be shot dead.

The Bad
The more I played the game, the more I started to feel that, as faithful to police work and police life it might be, it's a bit too black and white when it comes to cops and robbers. There's a bit of a "time to clean the filth from the streets" attitude. As the only villain in the game of any real depth, I think Jason Taselli/Marvin Hoffman is pretty respectable, he doesn't come quietly. One of the biggest problems with the game is Jessie "The Death Angel" Bains. As far as I'm concerned Taselli/Hoffman is the real death angel. Bains is only introduced late in the game as a friend of Taselli's and there's nothing to suggest he's bigger and badder than Taselli.

The Bottom Line
Well I still think it's one of the best text adventures, regardless of what one thinks of the cops. Maybe Space Quest 1 is a little better, because you're playing a very average fellow who is somehow given the chance to become the savior of his race.

DOS · by Andrew Fisher (697) · 2018

Interesting Police simulation, a different kind of adventure

The Good
Although I had played nearly all of Sierra’s "big" titles – the 'Space Quest's, the 'King’s Quest's, the 'Leisure Suit Larry's, etc. back in their heyday, 'Police Quest' was one title that for whatever reason, I didn’t get to play for some years. Having only got to finally play it only in more recent years, it’s interesting to see how this game holds up without the nostalgic tint that somewhat biases so many reviews, including my own. Whilst the majority of other Quests from Sierra concentrated more on fantasy elements, the sometimes over-looked 'Police Quest' deals in real-life Police procedure, with the only way to win being doing things “by the book”, step-by-step, as if you were a genuine cop. The fact that it was written by Jim Walls, a former real-life cop in California helps give the game it's more "realistic" approach, as opposed to the glamorous, not-stop-shootout image of policing given in so many other games, and movies…

This adventure sees you as law officer Sonny Bonds, starting off as an “on the beat” cop responding to routine calls. As the adventure develops, you find yourself climbing the promotion ladder as you set off in pursuit of the murderous, drug running “Death Angel”. This is most probably Sierra’s most down-to-earth and realistic adventure game ever. Most of it is quite serious, with just the odd line of humour thrown in here or there.

While LucasArts generally surpassed Sierra’s adventure games in later years, PQ shows that when Sierra tried, they could come up with something really original. A shame this creativity waned slightly in later releases, but that’s another story.

The graphics… hard to decide whether this should be under “good” or “bad”; a little of both, really. They are adequate for their time, looking typically Sierra-ish of the era – anyone who’s ever played a couple of Sierra adventure games will know what I mean; they all have a very similar design look. While looking very dated and hardly pushing the limits of EGA gaming forward, the graphics do the job, I guess.

The realism and insistence of getting every little thing right and “by the book” can be awkward to get to grips with at first, but once I’d got into the early stages of play, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself drawn into it much, much more than I had at first expected.

I found part of the game's appeal was for it's variety of situations and places to visit in the course of your day-to-day Police work, giving the game a far less linear feel that in many other adventure games.

The Bad
The game insists you follow Police procedure (as described in the game manual) to the letter, and is VERY harsh in insisting on this. Many, MANY times during play, if you forget to do one small thing, the game is over. For example, if you forget to check over your squad car EVERY TIME before going out on patrol… you loose.

I consider myself a hardened adventure gamer, eventually being able to find my way through most situations that present themselves in adventures, but I must confess that I consulted hint and walk-though guides quite a few times when playing this game! I defy anyone to get maximum points on this game without playing through at least a dozen times! Even with aid of walk-through I was some points short of a perfect score at the end.

But the game's meanness doesn’t end there. It’s really HARSH at times. For example, at some points in the game, you must shower before changing clothes - if you forget to turn the shower off after you, the game docks you a point!!

Driving around the city of Lytton with little coloured lines representing cars - it’s very awkward, and even for the era, it looks pretty tacky! What’s more, driving badly (wrong side of the road, etc.) is fine, but jump a red light (in normal drive mode, not pursuit) and you’re scolded for breaking procedure and have to restore.

It’s very easy to miss something vital or to mess things up, so a LOT of saving and restoring, with a long back-list of saves, is needed (even by Sierra’s standards!)

All this can make the game a little hard to get into, and it’s certainly not to everyone’s taste.

The graphics, whilst they do they job and are actually quite good in places, are a little unimaginative in others, and are just so very Sierra-ish! Sonny looks practically identical to Gwydion, the lead in ‘King’s Quest III’, not to mention a passing resemblance to early renderings of 'Leisure Suit Larry', and several other Sierra game characters

The early text interface doesn’t ease matters any, either. Whereas later games’ interfaces would, for example, open doors for you automatically, here you have to manually type “open door” every time, making play seem a little long-winded sometimes. (Oh, and one trivial thing that niggled me: The text cursor at the bottom of the screen. Normally the text input line begins with a >, but for this adventure is was <, back to front. A teeny thing, but it bugged me none-the-less!)

Personally, I found the game's ending was a little flat, and almost an anti-climax after some of the scenes earlier in the game. The last few actions are done on "autopilot", which I found rather disappointing; I would have liked to have been more involved.

Oh, and the Poker game. For some reason, Sierra went through a long phase where they for some reason felt obliged to stick in some sort of gambling game as part of there adventures, and here is no exception. Having to play the damned game once is enough, but to have to play it twice… grrr! All-in-all, things really did feel like they began to run out of creativity towards the end of the game, a few more ideas would have been welcome.

While I believe that some of Sierra’s later VGA remakes were pointless, this game is one that does benefit in many ways, with some of the more obscure, over-picky bits toned down for that release, though the lack of text interface does take away from a lot of the feeling of involvement.

The Bottom Line
A game that won't be to all adventure players' tastes, but if you’re looking for something a little different and more realistic, this one’s not a bad bet. If you’re willing to forgive the very dated graphics and have a walk-through handy to help you through the numerous over-harsh and obscure areas, there is some enjoyment to be had. You’ll either like it or loathe it, but if you like it, you’ll probably like it A LOT. (However I do feel that it's one of the very few Sierra games where the later VGA remake is generally a better play, even if it does loose the user input interface.)

DOS · by Jayson Firestorm (143) · 2004

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cell Block Love

The love story between Sonny and Marie is retold - from Marie's point of view, and tongue-in-cheek - in the song Cell Block Love in Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out.

Development

The game was written by Jim Walls, a former California State Police Officer, who also wrote the following two Police Quest games.

Humour

  • The unmarked cadillac used by the narcs is said to be confiscated from a recent arrest when Sonny looks at it personally, but if the player selects "See Object" and selects the key to the cadillac, the game will inform him that it is a government issued, unmarked car.
  • If Sonny trades his integrity for some quick sex with Helen Hots, she will give him a telephone number to call her at. If he calls this number, he may reach the Police Commissioner's wife. It doesn't end well for his career.

References

  • When the feathers of the chicken on the desk fall on the ground and the player types "pick up feather" the reply will be "Do that in King's Quest III"
  • When the chicken is in Dooley's office, the Astro Chicken tune from Space Quest 3, 4 and 5 is played.
  • Entering certain words in the crime computer comes up with amusing results. Some that work are programmers 'Al Lowe,' 'Ken Williams,' and 'Jim Walls.' Various dirty words also have listings.
  • Another King’s Quest III reference can be found in the beginning of the game. Enter the briefing room and pick up the newspaper lying there. Browse through it until you stumble upon an article about a town called Daventry under siege by a three-headed dragon. Daventry is the town in which the fantasy adventure King’s Quest III is played. In the article, a gnome is mentioned as well. This could well be the one sitting on a chair in front of a cabin at the end of King’s Quest III.
  • The pimp from Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards makes a cameo appearance in the game. He can be found behind bars at the Lytton City Jail.

Information also contributed by -Chris, B14ck W01f, Erwin Bergervoet, Jason Mugrave, Ju, just Ju..., Sciere and uclafalcon

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Related Sites +

  • Crap Shoot
    A humorous review on PC Gamer
  • Hints for Police Quest 1
    These hints will help you solve the game.
  • ScummVM
    supports the DOS, Macintosh, Amiga and Apple IIgs versions of Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel under Windows, Linux, Macintosh and other platforms.

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  • MobyGames ID: 146
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Andy Roark.

Amiga added by POMAH. Apple IIgs added by Kabushi. Apple II added by Terok Nor. Atari ST added by Belboz. Macintosh added by lampadario.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Jeanne, Jayson Firestorm, Macs Black, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 29, 1999. Last modified January 29, 2024.